Choosing your Center of
Excellence Collection: Tips from a
Selective Depository
David Durant
Joyner Library, East Carolina
University
February 26, 2014
What We’ll Cover
• ASERL CFDP Overview
• COE Responsibilities
• Tips for Choosing a COE Subject
• Implementation Steps
• Promoting and Marketing your COE
Collection
ASERL Collaborative Federal
Documents Program (CFDP)
• Initiated in 2007
• Cooperative preservation of print FDLP publications
• Individual depositories serve as Center of Excellence
• Two complete, distributed collections in ASERL of
everything published via the FDLP
Center of Excellence (COE)
Responsibilities
• Build a comprehensive collection for a particular
agency or on a particular subject
• Fill any gaps in COE collection
• Collection must be fully cataloged
• Public service and ILL responsibilities
• Resource for the entire region
Joyner Library as a COE
• Committed to serve as a COE in January
2011
• Cold War & Internal Security (CWIS)
Collection
Tips for Choosing a COE Topic
• Relates to research and curricular needs of
your users
• Ties in to other collections in your library
• Something you already have substantial
holdings in
• Anticipated size/growth of COE Collection
Tips for Choosing a COE Topic (2)
• Available resources (staff, time, money,
etc.)
• Subject expertise on staff
• Connects to your broader
region/community
Tips for Choosing a COE Topic (3)
• Choose within your means:
an agency/subject that is
manageable in scope and
scale for your institution
Why CWIS?
• Great historic importance
• Tied to other library collections
• Relatively small collection
• Already had sizable holdings/cataloged
• Retrospective (no new growth/item selection)
Implementation Steps
• Create title lists of in-scope publications



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Monthly Catalog of US Government
Publications (1895-1976)
GPO Catalog (1976-present)
Guide to U.S. Government Publications
Beware of agency name changes/SuDoc
changes
• Inventory current COE Holdings
• Perform collection gap analysis
Implementation Steps (2)
• Check Item Lister/Adjust selection profile
• Register for ASERL Disposition Database
• Monitor other N&O resources
• Arrange cataloging and preservation
• Arrange shelf space
Implementation Steps (3)
• Determine circulation/access policies
• Familiarize yourself with agency/subject
history
• Educate your colleagues about the
collection
• Promotion/rollout
Promoting and Marketing your COE
Collection
• Posters, fliers, bookmarks
• Press releases/newsletter articles
• Web resources (blogs, LibGuides, etc.)/social
media
• Limited digitization
Promoting and Marketing your COE
Collection (2)
• Outreach to agencies
• Speakers/workshops
• Official rollout event
Promoting and Marketing your COE
Collection (3)
• Work with your PR/Development personnel as
closely as possible
• Use as an opportunity to show the history
inside the covers
Promoting and Marketing your COE
Collection: Ex.
• CWIS LibGuide: http://libguides.ecu.edu/cwis
• CWIS Blog: http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/cwis/
• Outreach to agencies
• Speakers/workshops
• Official rollout event
Final Thoughts
• Think of a COE collection as an
opportunity, not a burden
• Show the relevance and value
of legacy document collections
Additional Information
• Additional resources can be found on
the ASERL CFDP website:
http://www.aserl.org/programs/govdoc/
Contact info:
David Durant
Joyner Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858
Ph. (252) 328-2258
E-mail: [email protected]